Bookable
A building like a moored ship
The Melbourne Aquarium opened on 17 January 2000, beside and beneath the Flinders Street Viaduct and the King Street Bridge. Designed by Peddle Thorp to resemble a ship moored on the river, it reaches 7 metres below the surface, and its 2.2-million-litre oceanarium was built in the round.


Penguins arrive
An expansion that reopened on 28 November 2008 added king and gentoo penguins, Antarctic fish, and ice and snow to recreate Antarctic conditions. A new entrance was built at the corner of Flinders Street and King Street.
SEA LIFE Melbourne
Merlin Entertainments bought the aquarium’s owners in 2012, and after an $8 million refurbishment it relaunched as SEA LIFE Melbourne in September 2013. Its conservation work has included breeding grey nurse sharks, seadragons and spotted handfish, and the rehabilitation of sea turtles.


